Vaccination Campaign

This past week my village health staff underwent the challenge of providing free yellow fever vaccines to everyone in the community. The government provided free vaccines to all men, women, and children who were over 9 months old. It was a wonderful opportunity for the people in village, as this new vaccine protects them for life. It was a great initiative, but difficult for the health to actually carry out. They had about four days to vaccinate 14 villages. There are three health workers qualified to give shots. They were busy, to say the least. Each day we split up and travelled to two or three communities before returning home late in the evening. Most of the travel was done by trekking to the villages, often in the rain as it is currently rainy season, carrying a container of the vaccine, a box of disposable needles, and a cardboard box for the waste. On one day, I trekked in between 15 and 20 kilometers. When we arrived in a community, we would gather the population at some central point, like the chief’s palace. I would unwrap the needles, and the health worker would prepare the shots. Everyone would line up, and then the health worker would inject people one by one. The health staff did not have gloves, they did not have band-aids to cover the injection spot, they did not have alcohol swabs to wipe the arms. They simply took the syringe, gave the shot, and the person walked away. Then the used needle was dropped into the cardboard box.

It was a very interesting experience, as the entire town would watch as a particular person received a shot. Young kids in particular liked to watch to see what someone’s reaction would be, laughing hysterically if the person cried out or made a funny face. A funny pattern emerged, in which very young children were expected to cry, but almost all other people were expected to show no sign of pain. For the young kids, it was acceptable to cry and people understood their tears without trying to interfere. However, around the age of five or so, it became unacceptable to show pain. Little kids over five years had to suck it up, and did their best not to cry or make a funny face when they were injected. I was amazed by a tiny girl who stepped up alone, without any parent forcing her to do so, to get the shot. They put the needle into her arm and you could see a flash of discomfort come across her face, but then she locked it down. It must have taken her everything to stay impartial, but she did not break. She walked away in her flowery dress without a single tear falling. It was almost heartbreaking to see such a young child put on such a display of bravery. But it wasn’t only the little girl who had to put on an act. All children (both boys and girls) were not allowed to react in any way. Young men were especially not supposed to show any sign of pain. They had to receive the shot without any change in facial expression. All adults were also expected to remain calm, although old men and women seemed to be allowed to make a bit of a joke out of it. The older adults would often make faces of discomfort, which was acceptable, but still drew peels of laughter from the on looking children. However, the rules were bent for women from the ages of 15 to 25. They were actually expected to overreact and be incredibly dramatic. They would get a shot and would cry out or scream or shout and then rub their arms and run away from the doctors and then huddle with their others friends making faces.

In all, it was a very successful campaign, and hundreds of people are now immune to yellow fever.